There is a notable piece from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) ‘Imagining a New Social Contract’, on the desirability of having both a Universal Basic Income and Universal Basic Services. Indeed, I come more and more to the conclusion that this style of scheme is likely to be the only real way to offer a… Read more
Category:
Psychology
How money is created is always political
There is an informative review of a book published by the Yale University Press (which as far as I can detect is not yet available in the UK) by the British economist and biographer of John Maynard Keynes, Robert Skidelsky: Money and Government: The Past and Future of Economics. Although Robert Sidelsky has been both… Read more
BBC Brexit Coverage: Objective Truth, Relativism and Gaslighting
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” – Daniel Patrick Moynihan BBC’s public news purpose: To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them: The BBC will provide accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming of the highest editorial… Read more
Further news from HM Treasury
Following my previous correspondence with the Treasury I had to ask why it seemed to be fine for private banks to create money by issuing loans at will, yet if the Treasury were to create any money it would be inflationary. Here is the reply (as ever, click to enlarge): The key response to my… Read more
Cheers for Quantitative Easing
It’s not often we report on Whisky prices – especially as my indulgence is rarely more than annually, which is about as often as I seem to meet an old friend who loves the stuff. But if proof were needed that Quantitative Easing has pushed up prices of second hand goods these are pretty blatant… Read more
Mission Improbable
I recently came across this quote from Hyman Minsky from the year before he died “..As a minimum the bottoms to incomes need to be compatible with sustaining self esteem and the tops need to be such that a few cannot undermine democracy by using the power their wealth brings them to subvert the political… Read more
Why bankers are rich and our health is poor
I have started subscribing to Money statistics at ‘The Money Charity’. I rather wish I hadn’t. It is an uncomfortable realisation that a whopping 3,118 Consumer County Court Judgements were issued every day in 2017, with an average value of £1,493. Meanwhile the so called National Debt (which many might prefer to call National Savings)… Read more
Voting for the Nasty Party
YouGov, a polling operation part owned by Conservative MP, Nadhim Zahawi, has been reported as running a poll that includes a question as to whether ‘those who receive more money from welfare benefits than they pay in taxes’ should be allowed to vote. Apparently (and mercifully) there was much opposition to this. It ought to… Read more
The Old for the Young – or Pensions for the Future?
There is much publicity about the University Pensions strikes. A solution has been suggested by Alexander Douglas Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews, who puts forward a government guarantee for the University Superannuation Service (USS). It sounds like self serving advocacy but he also suggests good reasons that this could be opposed including,… Read more
How are you going to pay for it? – a politician’s guide
I thought it worth flagging up these two, short well-written pieces from Australia on how politicians should be answering the question “how are we going to pay for it?” A Politician’s guide to the question, “How are you going to pay for it?” The only improvement I’d suggest is that ‘the politician’ fails to point… Read more